124685-open-world-or-instanced
Content ---- ---- ---- ---- EQ seemed to do extremely well w/o instances, but that's was many moons ago, and times have changed. The way the game was built follows the theme park model, which is instanced everything, I don't see how they can give the OW greater emphasis or incentives as instances. | |} ---- Admittedly I never played it, but I have a hard time imagining that the fight designs and combat were similar between the two games. | |} ---- Well, you're right EQ is 16 years old so I'm guessing the boss mechanics were not as complex as WS. But, FFXI did do OW Bosses and some of the boss fights would last days! | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- It's because the game isn't designed with OW content in mind, it's a theme park, so instanced content will always be better. That being said, I still hate the fact that when you log in at end level you're just sitting in the city/house waiting to raid. To me that's not an MMO, it's just a lobby based game with multiplayer. | |} ---- ---- I think it's been this way since vanilla WoW ended. I had a blast exploring Azeroth pre-TBC, it was a huge, multi-faceted, dual-content epic world packed with things to find, lots of areas to explore, tough quests to take down... it was seamless and wondrous. And more, I really enjoyed fighting baddies for its own sake back then. Reaching 50 in vanilla often involved grinding mobs when quests ran dry, and although it wasn't always a blast, I liked WoW's combat enough (and the game was unique enough) that I could feel fulfilled hacking away at monsters to get levels. Since that time, every MMO I've played (including WoW post-vanilla) has shifted the game's design to some variation of: level in the world, end game from a hub. Because of this I don't think we're all forced to sit around in a city... I'd say we choose to do so, probably because the leveling experience is old news and boring for many MMORPG gamers. IMO, MMORPGs should focus on making the leveling experience as breezy and light-hearted as they can (something like Diablo 3, not hard, not totally brainless, but emphasizing fun and fast action), while making the endgame experience challenging, progressive, and with lots of rewards. Then, rather than trying to make everything both fun and hard, players can swap between leveling characters and taking down endgame challenges, as suits their mood. In the case of WS, I'd say one cause of the game's initial failure for the general public was its over-emphasis on a challenging leveling experience on top of its challenging endgame. There was nowhere to go when you just wanted to relax and chill out. Adventures had poop rewards, PVP had its foibles, everything else felt like it was (or would be based on bad reputation) a chore. On the flipside, I think WoW has gone a bit far in the other direction, making both the leveling experience and endgame very easy. Although real challenges do exist in the game (CMs, mythic), they've become a bit too... uh, incoherent, and gated, and if you're not in a progression guild, can be quite difficult to organize. | |} ---- And thank heavens that won't happen. If it did I would seriously consider ending my sub. I know people want to force others out into the open world, but for me it would just be a wasteful use of my time, forced on me by the devs. No, I would not like that at all. I play this game for the instanced content, so trying to force me into a different mold would be a huge negative. | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Yep...and every single one of those mmos will/have failed for that. Themepark is familiar and fun... Things like dailies, farming, and contracts are enough to get people in the world. Sandbox mmos are bad because they almost always lack direction on what to do or how to do it. I think we should have a well balanced mix of both, which is what Wildstar provides, we get 20 man events, WB's, contracts, dailies, ect for our open world needs, and new dungeons, adventures, shiphands, and raids for our instanced needs. | |} ---- There hasn't been any 'sandbox' games that are new in a long time, so saying they are failure isn't really fair. EVE is still chugging, and so is DAoC, UO, and other that came before WoW. Now if you're talking about failed MMO's just look at almost every theme park mmo's that has failed to meet expectations after the release of WoW. | |} ---- ---- ----